Consented or coerced? Trafficking of Nigerian women and girls for sex work in Italy.

Vivian Wiwoloku, Pellegrino Della Terra Onlus (PEDETO)
Tolulope M. Ola, Department of Sociology, Faculty of the Social Sciences, University of Ado-Ekiti

This paper is a report of a study that investigates the conditions of migration among Nigerian female migrants involved in sex work to determine whether they were coerced or consented to migrate in Palermo, Italy. The paper also highlights some of the Associations’(Pellegrino Della Terra Onlus) (PEDETO) (The Pilgrim of the Earth) approaches to rehabilitating and reintegrating migrant sex workers. A total of 285 Female Sex Workers (FSWs) were interviewed. 147 FSWs (51%) reported that they consented to migrate for sex work; 86 FSWs (30%) reported that they consented to migrate for reasons other than sex work while the remaining 52 FSWs (18%) reported that they were coerced. Multiple regression analysis revealed that some selected socio-demographic variables were predictors of conditions to migrate with or without consent. Within this context, understanding conditions of migration is a key theme for understanding trafficking.